Enerthia Energy works with commercial and industrial energy users across four offerings — energy consultancy, business development, product and service endorsement, and funding. All four turn on one regulatory notice this month. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has opened public comment on a proposal that would take Eskom fixed charges to the full level of a three-year glide path, without changing the headline increase at all.
- The 8.83% average increase is already approved. What is open for comment is how that revenue is collected, not how much of it there is.
- Fixed charges move from 66.6% to 100% of their target, and the service and administration charge rises by close to 50%.
- Variable energy rates fall to hold the average, so a site’s exposure now turns on its load factor rather than the headline number.
- Written comments close at 16:00 on 2 October 2026.
What is Eskom actually asking to change?
The structure, not the total. The allowable revenue for 2027/28 was determined at R419.438 billion against a forecast 160 395 GWh of sales, and that determination is not reopened here. NERSA gazetted the Retail Tariff Structural Adjustment on 2 September and is asking how the approved revenue should be split between what a customer consumes and what a customer is connected for. Written submissions close at 16:00 on 2 October, a public hearing follows on 8 October, and a decision is expected on 26 November. If approved, the new structure applies from 1 April 2027 for customers supplied directly by Eskom, and from 1 July 2027 for municipal customers on the 8.84% average.
How much are Eskom fixed charges going up?
To 100% of a three-year glide path, from the 66.6% they sit at now. Alongside that, the service and administration charge rises by close to 50%. Because the overall average is being held near 8.83%, more weight on the fixed side means less on the variable side: energy rates come down as connection charges go up. The headline moves from 240.28c to 261.50c per unit, a rise of 21.22c, but that blended figure describes almost nobody’s actual bill. For municipal customers the Generation Capacity Charge has to reach 30% of the benchmark set in the 2025 Retail Tariff Plan by FY2028, and it is already there, so no further structural adjustment is proposed for them next year.
Which sites are most exposed to the change?
Low-load-factor sites. Load factor is simply how evenly a site uses its connection across the hours it is billed for, and it decides who gains and who loses in a fixed-for-variable swap. A cold store, a continuous process plant or a data centre spreads the same fixed charge across a very large number of units, so a lower energy rate can leave it flat or slightly better off. A shopping centre, an office park, a school or a single-shift warehouse carries an identical fixed charge over far fewer units, so its effective cost per unit rises even though the published average did not. Multi-site operators should look twice: where charges apply per point of supply, a business with many small connections carries the fixed component many times over.
What should a buyer do before 2 October?
Model the two components separately, then comment. Split the bill into its fixed and variable parts rather than working from a blended rate, because a blended rate hides exactly what is being proposed. Calculate load factor per site, not per portfolio, since the portfolio average conceals the sites most exposed. Count the points of supply and check the notified capacity at each, because capacity that no longer matches how a site is used is a cost that carries forward. Re-run the self-generation, efficiency and wheeling case against the proposed split rather than the current one — when cost moves from consumption to connection, the portion of the bill that own generation displaces gets smaller, and a model built on last year’s tariff maths will overstate the benefit.
A tariff structure outlasts any single annual increase, and this is the point at which a buyer’s own consumption pattern can be put on the record. NERSA has invited comment on whether the increase has been applied reasonably across customer categories, on cost-reflectivity, and on the effect of the structure on competition as a wholesale market develops. Submissions must reach the regulator by 16:00 on 2 October 2026.